Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 46 - The Next Step (Patreon)

When Mira blew up the moon, it was like a starting gun had gone off. Suddenly, the aliens were very aware that humanity had no intention of going down without a fight.

Patrick Ward

The trip back to the surface was uneventful, though I did learn something extremely disturbing along the way. I sat in Alistaris’ ship, which was a purpose-built smuggling vessel intended to get through quarantines and blockades. According to him, at least. I had no reason to distrust that, considering he’d just saved my life. Granted, he had his reasons for doing so – he wanted me to fight a war for him – but in my mind, that didn’t really matter all that much. All I really cared about was that, without his intervention, I’d have died a lonely, cold death on the lunar surface.

In any case, that subject had been relegated to a position in the back of my mind as I watched the battle play out on a floating screen. In the video, I saw the battered form of the swordsman ripping his way through a mostly destroyed ship. I recognized the vessel as the one I’d worked so hard to board so I could ensure my escape.

Just as the swordsman ripped his way through the ship’s fuselage, someone off-screen fired an energy weapon that tore a hole in his torso. That didn’t immediately put him down, so he was quickly buried under a barrage of similar ordnance. He succumbed a few moments later.

“That guy was a real tank,” I said.

Alistaris, who was sitting across from me, turned off the video and, a second later, the screen disappeared. I had no idea where it had gone, but it was just further evidence that I really didn’t know anything about the wider universe.

“Indeed,” the gnome said, running a hand through his white hair. The ship had been built for the much shorter Dingyts, so I was more than a little cramped in the small space. “That was Edrax Kel Tanimvan.”

“Is that supposed to mean anything to me?”

“I suppose not,” Alistaris allowed. “Suffice it to say that he is to his people as you are to yours. I had no idea he was even in this sector, much less in a hidden base on that little moon of yours.”

“You didn’t know about the moon base?”

“We did not,” Alistaris admitted. “A shortcoming that will be the subject of some discipline, I assure you.”

I sighed. If the well-informed Dingyts were ignorant of the base, then it was probably safe to assume that no one else had known about it, either. I’d only stumbled upon it on accident, after all.

“You’ve done the universe a great service,” Alistaris went on. “That base…do you know what it was?”

“They were building satellites and ships,” I answered. “I’m guessing they intended it as a staging area for an invasion once the quarantine drops.”

“Indeed. If that were to happen…we don’t have the resources to fight such a force,” he said.

“Why?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Why don’t you have the resources?” I asked, leaning forward. Never before had I ever felt grateful for my relatively short stature. If I’d have been as tall as my uncle, I’d have been truly cramped in the tight space of the ship’s cabin. “Seriously. If those android assholes could build a fleet of satellites up there, then why couldn’t you? Why do you even need me?”

“We don’t,” he said.

“That’s not what you said before.”

“We want you. We don’t need you. Your planet does, though. The fact of the matter is that this little world isn’t that important to us. There are resources here, but nothing we can’t get elsewhere and far more easily. The only reason I’m here at all is to oppose the Gomari Confederation.”

“The Pacificians. Are they part of this group?”

“Allies. Not members. The Pacificians are one of the independent factions, and they span across multiple galaxies.”

“Well, I’m killing them,” I announced.

“You can’t kill all of them.”

“Sure I can. It just might take me a while,” I stated. “I’ll start with that city they planted on top of a mountain. Then I’ll hunt down any other bases they might have. And once I get off Earth, I’ll go to wherever they’re holed up and kill them there, too.”

“You say that like it’ll be easy.”

“Easy to say. Hard to do. But I’m pretty persistent.”

“And what makes you think that will matter?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I did just blow up the moon.”

He sighed. “You blew up part of the moon,” he said. “By accident.”

“Right. If I can do that without even trying, think about what I can do if I put my mind to it,” I said. “Look – I don’t expect you to understand, okay? Those robot bastards were using people as Mist batteries. Did you know? They copy their consciousness so it looks like they’re giving people perfect lives. But in reality, they’re just killing everyone, then using their bodies’ regeneration to produce Mist.”

“Some would argue that those aren’t just copies.”

“The Pacificians wouldn’t be among the people who made that claim. I saw it in their files. They know what they’re doing.”

“And they believe they’re creating new life every time they copy someone,” Alistaris said. “I don’t know if I can dispute that, either. They have free will. The ability to reason. Emotions. They –”

“They’re just robots. End of story.”

He sighed. “You are so naïve,” the Dingyt said. “There are dozens of sentient races of artificial intelligence. Most are entirely peaceful. The Pacificians are not, but—”

“Clearly.”

I didn’t dispute my naivete. I knew that I had no idea what the wider universe had to offer. But for my purposes, thinking of the Pacificians as advanced robots made things much easier. After all, if they weren’t really people, killing them didn’t pose any moral quandaries.

And that was as much as I wanted to think about that.

“We are getting too far afield,” Alistaris said. “Before you can…do what you said you want to do, you need to help the Alliance.”

“I remember what I promised,” I stated. “But I want something else from you.”

“Saving your life wasn’t enough?”

“No. Not really.”

He sighed. “What do you want?”

“I want you to help me get into Olympus,” I said. “That’s how I ended up on the moon. I tried to sneak in by barrel, but –”

“By barrel?”

“Long story. The point is that I could only find one way in, and that failed. I need you to help me enter that city so I can save someone,” I said. I’d found some records that indicated that Cyrilla’s brother was being held within Olympus, and he wasn’t alone. I didn’t know much more than that, but I still intended to follow through with my promise and rescue him. But I also hoped to save the others as well.

“That…that is more difficult than you know,” he said.

I shrugged. “Get me in there, and I’ll take care of the problem they represent,” I said. “Or am I wrong in thinking that you don’t want them around? You said they’re allies of the Confederation, right? Well, think of this as the first step in getting rid of the bad guys.”

“That is a gross oversimplification of the situation,” Alistaris said. “There are no good guys and bad guys, as you so simplistically put it. In fact, I was just telling the chancellor that –”

“Don’t care. They’ve invaded my world. They’ve killed thousands. Maybe millions, by this point. And –”

“So have you.”

“And they want to take over the world, oppressing humanity and strip mining the world,” I said, speaking over him. “That makes them the bad guys, at least in my book. I don’t care how you label them. You can call them glitter princesses, for all it matters to me. What does matter to me is that you give me the tools I need to do what I want to do.”

“Which, to be clear, is to commit mass murder,” he said.

“They’re robots. I don’t consider it murder.”

“Most governments would disagree.”

“Oh, stop pretending you care,” I said, already guessing why he really needed me. I’d given it a lot of thought, and there was really only one reason for someone with his level of power to recruit me. “We both know you couldn’t care less about any of that. You recruited me precisely because I’m not subject to whatever rules govern your behavior, right?”

“Is that a question? Or do you know more than you let on?”

“I have a brain, Allie,” I said. He winced at the fact that I’d shortened his name. “I can read the situation as well as anyone else. I know when I’m being used to fight a proxy war. I don’t know what rules you think you need to follow. I don’t know about repercussions or who’s going to enforce any of it. But I think you want me to do exactly what I’m talking about doing so you can stand back and claim your hands are clean, all while your enemies die horrible deaths.”

Alistaris leaned forward. “Just so we are clear – I don’t care if their deaths are horrible, peaceful, or something in between those two extremes. I just want them dead,” he said. “You are correct, though. The Ark Alliance has to follow rules of engagement as set forth by –”

“Again – I don’t care. None of that affects me,” I said. Still, I intended to contact Kith to get the real story. Just because I was okay with working for Alistaris, it didn’t necessarily mean that I trusted him. He had no qualms about lying to me, so I had long since resolved to take whatever he had to tell me with a grain of salt. “Just tell me that you can get me into that city.”

“I can get you into that city.”

“Good,” I said, slapping my knees for emphasis. “That’s all I need for now. Besides, I think we’re getting close.”

Indeed, I’d felt that the ship’s descent had slowed, and it didn’t take a leap of logic to come to the conclusion that we’d reached our destination.

“You can feel that even with the inertial dampeners engaged?”

“Yup. I’m just that talented,” I said. I’d been flaring Observation the entire time, but he didn’t need to know that. The more in the dark he was about my abilities, the better. I’d already revealed far too much about my combat capabilities as it was, so I needed to keep some cards close to my chest.

He sighed and muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like “arrogant child”, but I knew that there was no way he was talking about me. Instead, I focused on the ship’s descent, and only a few minutes later, I felt it settle into place.

When it did, I rose and said, “Well, thanks for the ride, Al.” I gave him a little salute. “I’m guessing you’ll give me a call when you’re ready to get me into Olympus.”

“Indeed,” he said.

After that, I crossed the ship’s cabin to the door, which opened when I drew near. Immediately, I was assaulted by hot, humid air. After spending so long in various climate-controlled areas, it was a welcome change. Sure, it wasn’t comfortable, but it was familiar, which was all that mattered.

I left the ship behind, giving Alistaris a little wave as it lifted into the air and sped off. That left me alone in the wilderness. The Leviathan was only a few hundred yards away, and I covered the distance in a hurry. When I finally reached my ship, I boarded and commenced with my customary sweep.

As I had already noted, I didn’t trust Alistaris, and given that he’d already displayed a capability to infiltrate my ship and plant trackers, I wasn’t going to take any chances. As it turned out, I found seven hidden tracking devices within the ship and three more planted on the exterior. I destroyed them all before activating Bastion and retreating to the bathroom, where I stepped into the shower.

That’s when I broke down.

After everything I had been through, it had been all I could handle to keep my emotions under control. But now that I was alone, I didn’t have any reason to keep up the façade. And as I sank to the shower’s floor, letting the hot water fall all around me, I let my emotions fully take root.

There, I wept.

I didn’t really think about any individual thing. Instead, my thoughts flowed from one horrible event to the next. I thought about the human cattle I’d encountered in the E’rok Tan facility. I thought about the terrifying and curiously intelligent wildling clown. I thought about the human Mist batteries, about all those people who’d only wanted a better life, but instead were killed and copied.

And I thought about the fact that I’d blown up the moon.

Not the whole thing, but enough that it was almost assuredly visible from Earth’s surface. Which, in its own way, was the most disturbing thing I’d done. Not because I’d killed a few thousand robots. I was fine with that. And I wasn’t even that concerned with the fact that I’d ended the lives of the braindead people the Pacificians had been using as Mist batteries. They were already dead, even if their bodies were being kept alive.

No - the biggest issue I had was with the sheer amount of destructive power I’d brought to bear. What was my limit? Did I even have one, aside from the size of the explosives I used? This time, I had simply torn a hole in the moon, but next time, I might do the same to the Earth. Or in a few more years, maybe I could even destroy an entire planet.

It was a disturbing thought, and I knew it would keep me up at night.

I don’t know how long I sat there in the shower, crying as the water washed over me, but by the time I managed to push myself to my feet, I felt slightly better. Once, my uncle had told me that tears were a natural and necessary part of life. The act of crying could provide a much-needed outlet to relieve stress. At the time, I hadn’t really believed him, instead thinking that it was a sign of weakness. However, in the years since, I’d discovered just how right he was.

Once I finished in the shower – and with my tears – I stepped out of the shower and used Secure Connection to contact Patrick. When he answered, he was understandably distraught, but I assured him I was okay. Soon after that, I told him that we’d talk when I returned to Fortune, but for the time being, I needed a few hours rest before I headed that way.

He wasn’t happy about the obvious dismissal, but he accepted it nonetheless. And a few minutes later, I retreated into my bedroom, where I flopped onto the bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

Thankfully, I didn’t dream.

A handful of hours later, I awoke, still groggy but well enough to pilot the Leviathan back to Fortune. The flight wasn’t long, and before I knew it, I was setting the ship down in the familiar dock. I’d barely had a chance to shut down the engines when the forward hatch opened and Patrick came barreling inside.

A second later, he had his arms wrapped around me.

“I thought you were…I saw what happened up there…and…and…I’m just so glad you’re okay,” he said.

“Me too,” I said, suddenly feeling guilty that I hadn’t contacted him the moment I was safe. I’d had my reasons not to – chiefly that I didn’t want to use the Dingyt ship’s communications equipment. I had no idea what they could do with that kind of information, so I’d waited until I was on board the Leviathan.

A mistake, because Patrick had clearly been worried out of his mind.

“Tell me everything that happened,” he said, finally releasing me and sitting in the co-pilot’s chair.

And I did, sparing no details. He deserved to know everything I did, after all. It took a little while to recount the whole tale, and when I was done, he remained silent for a long while before saying, “This just got a lot more complicated, didn’t it?”

I nodded. “I think it was always going in this direction,” I said.

Originally, I’d been committed to laying low until the Initialization completed. When the quarantine was lifted, I had intended to leave Earth behind. However, that had never really been an option. I wasn’t so naïve as to think that, if the Pacificians had been free to enact their plan, complete with a multitude of ships and satellites, they would have ever let us escape the planet.

It was always going to end in a fight.

We’d just been fooling ourselves by thinking otherwise.

“Have you seen it?” Patrick asked.

“Seen what?”

“The moon.”

“I got a nice, close look, yeah,” I said. I gave him a small smile, asking, “You were listening to my story, right?”

“I’m talking about from here,” he said. “I think the whole world probably saw it.”

I shook my head. When I’d arrived on the surface, I’d pointedly avoided looking up at the sky. And by the time I had set off toward Fortune, the sun had already risen.

“You should look.”

I sighed, then nodded. After that, I followed Patrick out of the ship. By that point, night had fallen, and I looked up into the sky. There, amidst a blanket of stars, was a silvery full moon.

In most ways, it looked the same as it always did. However, it only took a single glance to recognize the effect of my explosion. Alistaris had characterized it as blowing up the moon, and seeing the size of the crater, I couldn’t really argue with that assessment. A full third of moon had been affected by the explosion, tearing a huge crater in the lunar surface. It wasn’t just visible with the naked eye; it was impossible to ignore.

“Would it make any difference if I told you that I didn’t mean to do that?”

“I think that makes it worse, Mira.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.”